Cutting or slicing systems are often used for producing uniform and/or predetermined shapes and sizes of cheese. Bulk cheese produces can be cut into evenly sized cubes or shreds suitable for consumer use. An apparatus for cutting cheese into cubes can utilize small spaced wires to cut through larger blocks of cheese or knives to cut slices into cube shapes of generally predetermined sizes and shapes. Cheese shredders can utilize a grating device into which cubes or blocks of cheese are placed and subsequently grated into numerous strips or shreds of generally predetermined sizes and shapes.
Irregularly shaped and sized cheese pieces, or crumbles, can be used with various types of foods, such as in cooking or as a topping. Certain types of cheeses naturally tend to crumble with a small degree of working. These types of naturally crumbly cheeses, such as feta and blue cheeses, are often have a higher acid and salt content that makes them softer. To produce cheese crumbles from a block or cube of soft cheeses having higher acid and salt content, the cheese is passed through a cutting machine with two blades assemblies. The primary blade assembly can have a single blade for cutting the cheese in a transverse machine feed direction and the secondary blade assembly can have a plurality of blades for cutting the cheese in a parallel machine feed direction. Due to the malleable texture of the soft cheeses having higher acid and salt content, further processing can be unnecessary, and the cheese tends to naturally crumble or fall apart into small, irregularly shaped and sized cheese crumbles following cutting by the two blade assemblies.
The typical cheese cutting apparatus having two knife assemblies does not produce suitable cheese crumbles from cheeses having harder consistencies, such as semi-soft cheeses, because of the lower acid and salt content of the cheese which can make such cheese more firm and prevent natural crumbling.